Poachers looking to capitalize on the very lucrative trade in rhino horns and illegal ivory kill around 20,000 elephants each year in Africa. This has led to a 20 percent decline in the elephant population. To make matters worse, the elephant poaching also leads to $25 million lost in tourism opportunities.
A recent status report issued by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature( IUCN) points out that Africa only has an estimated 415,000 elephants left alive in the wild. The report emphasizes the strong ethical arguments in support of the protection of elephants from poachers. Their argument is reinforced by a new study, published this Tuesday in the Journal Nature Communications, which has found that there is also a very strong financial incentive to strengthen the protection measures of animals.
A team of researchers from the University of Vermont, the World Wildlife Fund and the University of Cambridge, has discovered that African tourism is severely affected by elephant poaching. More specifically, countries with elephant populations affected by poaching lose up to $25 million in tourism revenue.
For their study, scientists took into consideration how several parks were affected by an increase in elephant poaching. Their findings suggest that the conservation efforts should be increased, even if purely on a financial reasoning. For every dollar invested in measures that protect the populations of elephants in countries in the West, East and South of Africa, can lead to a $1.78 return. This type of study is the first one that has managed to offer a continent-wide quantification of financial losses suffered from elephant poaching.
Unfortunately, their financial arguments meant to convince the countries to improve their conservation efforts only make sense where elephant tourism is high. Currently, countries with large parks in savannahs which allow tourists to easily spot and admire elephants have the best financial incentive to protect the animals. However, countries located in Central Africa where forest elephants predominantly live have less to gain from conservation efforts. This is caused by the fact that those elephants are elusive, much harder to spot by visitors and thus tourism activities are not as profitable.
In this regard, the scientists have stated that financial incentives should only complement the ethical imperative and other forms of justification in protecting the biodiversity of our planet.
Image source: Wikipedia
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